Currently viewing the tag: "January 1996 25 Years Ago"

by James Rada, Jr.

January 1921, 100 Years Ago

John H. Bentzell Killed

Mr. John H. Bentzell, another prosperous and well known farmer of near Thurmont, came to his death Thursday morning, January 6th. Mr. Bentzell, along with his other work  operates a small chopping mill at his home, the same being run by a gasoline engine. On this occasion he was grinding corn. In the same building, a board partition dividng, he keeps his automobile. His son Earl was doing some work on the auto, and noticed the engine and chopper running not as it should. Going to the other side to see what was the trouble, he found his father lying on the ground in a pool of blood, dead.

It is presumed Mr. Bentzell got too close and a wheel on the engine caught his sweater and an under blouse and whirled him round, his head striking the truck axle. The backs of the sweater and blouse were torn out, his left arm broken in several places and his head more or less crushed.

                                          – Catoctin Clarion, January 13, 1921

Association Growing

A meeting of the Thurmont School Improvement Association was held in the High School Auditorium Monday evening of this week. At this meeting fourteen new names were added to the list of members, making a total of 108. Matters pertaining to the betterment of the school were brought up and discussed, the principal topic being drainage. While the school ground generally is dry, yet the portion used as a ball ground and for other sports serves as sort of a trough to carry off the surface water of the high ground on virtually three sides of the plat.

                                          – Catoctin Clarion, January 20, 1921

January 1946, 75 Years Ago

Emmitsburg Is Ready To Take Steps Forward

Emmitsburg is all ready to move ahead.

As soon as wartime restrictions are lifted the town is scheduled to make more progress within a short time than has been made during the last decade.

That at least is the impression of the borough received by a visitor who returned to Emmitsburg after the absence of several years.

The town has performed considerable “face lifting” during the war years and scheduled improvements will make it one of the most progressive communities in its area.

                                          – Gettysburg Times, January 10, 1946

Grange Formed At Thurmont

Another subordinate Grange will be added to Pomona’s growing list tonight when a Thurmont unit will be organized in the auditorium of the Thurmont High School at 8 o’clock. Officers will be elected by the more than 50 charter members.

Howard U. Quinn, State Organizer, and Tobias E. Zimmerman, Master of Pomona Grange, will officiate at the organization meeting. All interested persons will be welcome, they say.

                                          – The Frederick Post, January 16, 1946

January 1971, 50 Years Ago

Dam Plans Appear Setback

It looks like there will be no Sixes Bridge Dam authorization this year.

The dam, proposed for construction near Emmitsburg, has been approved on an omnibus bill passed by the U.S. Senate.

But it is in difficulty because the House version of the Rivers and Harbors bill carries no authorization for the proposed dam on the Monocacy a few miles southeast of here.

The Potomac River Center in Washington has reported some sources believe there won’t be a bill this year, that time will run out before a conference committee can iron out the disagreements between the Senate and House bills.

                                          – Emmitsburg Chronicle, January 1, 1971

Band Changes Practice Date

The Emmitsburg Municipal Band has changed its night for practice from Wednesday nights to Monday nights. This is done in hopes that more members will be able to attend. Therefore, until further notice, practice will be on Monday instead of Wednesday.

                                          – Emmitsburg Chronicle, January 1, 1971

January 1996, 25 Years Ago

Mary Myers Celebrates A Century

Mary Myers is 100 years old—a lady with a wealth of memories and here-and-now attitude.

“I never had any particular plan to live so long,” she said when interviewed at a reception in her honor on Sunday, December 17, at our Lady of Mt. Carmel Parish Center, Thurmont. “But I do enjoy each day. When I look out my bedroom window in the morning, it doesn’t matter what the weather is. I see that another day has begun.”

                          – The Emmitsburg Regional Dispatch, January 1996

Mount Saint Mary’s Welcomes Mother Teresa

Inside a small, creaky-floored gym on  college campus nestled in the winter-glazed Catoctin Mountains, over two thousand people eagerly awaited the arrival of one of the world’s most famous women, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, the eighty-five-year-old missionary and 1979 Nobel Prize winner, visited Mount Saint Mary’s College and Seminary on December 9.

Mother Teresa, a world-renowned figure known for her undying commitment to the most desperate poor, visited the oldest independent Catholic college in the country after receiving an invitation from the Seminary. Her trip to Emmitsburg was part of the missionary’s journey to Washington, D.C., where fifteen members of her order—the Missionaries of Charity—took their final vows. The new sisters will work in AIDS hospices in the District.

Thunderous applause and camera flashes greeted the humble woman whose thirty-minute speech embodied her quiet, powerful presence.

                          – The Emmitsburg Regional Dispatch, January 1996